Improvement in earth-batteries for generating electricity



w. u. snow Earth-Batteries for Generating Ele c trioi-ty. N0. 155,209. YP at ented Sept. 22,1874.-

E GRAPHIC CO.FNOTD-LITN.39& 44 FARK PLACEMK UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM D. SNOW, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,209, datedSeptember 22, 1874 application filed June 6, 1874.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, WILLIAM D. SNOW, of Brook1yn,'in the State of NewYork, have invented a certain Improvement in Earth-Batteries forElectro-Magnetic Alarms, 850.; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full and correct description of the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawing, which represents a series of electromagneticsignaling or alarm apparatus placed in a house and operated by a currentderived from an earth-battery, as hereinafter more fully set forth.

The object of my invention is to avoid the employment of artificialelectric batteries for the purposes of house-signaling, fire and burglaralarms, and for the operation of other circuits.

In the common systems employed for these purposes a local or housebattery is employed, requiring to be. kept in working order by theoccupants of the building in which it is placed, who are usuallyentirely ignorant of its structure and uses; or else the street line ofwires is carried into the house, and thus subjected to all thecontingencies to which the house itself is liable.

I obviate the trouble, annoyance, and danger to public safety incidentto the systems referred to, by employing the current from anearthbattery without the intervention of any cups or vessels containingacids or other agents for the decomposition of zinc or other metals,commonly called a battery. This I efl'ect by making use of anearth-battery formed by burying the electrodes in the earth under thehouse at the depth of permanent moisture, so that the action of thedampness of the earth upon the plates will develop a sufficientpermanent current for the required purposes. From these buried plates Irun a telegraphic circuit in the house to connect with thermostats,signaling apparatus, fire and other alarms, annunciators, gas-lighters,or repeaters, according to the nature of the use to which the electriccurrent is to be applied.

Some attempts have been made to use earth-batteries for Variouspurposes. 'Such earth-batteries were made by simply burying a single setof elements in the earth, and proved of little or no practical value, onaccount of the very feeble intensity of the current generated. I havediscovered, however, that if a series of elements be used in the earth,coupled together so as to form an earthbattery of any required size,this objection is obviated, and a constant current of considerableintensity is obtained, capable of operating steadily quite an amount ofapparatus.

In the drawing, A and B mark two series of electrodes, which may be ofzinc and carbon, as marked 0 and Z, buried in the earth under the'housein which the circuit is to be used, the wire 01 being a connectionbetween the dissimilar elements of the two series; 0 D, the wires forconducting the current, which may be made to complete the circuit bypassing through E, an automatic thermostat; F, a repeater, connectedwith the street-wires J J Gr, an annunciator; H, afire-annihilator; orI, a signal-writing-bar apparatus, either one or more of these, eachoperated by the current in any of the usual modes.

What I claim is- 1. The improved earth-battery, consisting of a seriesof elements buried in the. earth and connected together to form abattery, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The combination of two or more electric currents or circuits, whenone of these is a current derived from an earth-battery, substantiallyas described, and is employed to operate the other or others.

The above specification of my said invention signed and witnessed atWashington this 30th day of May, A. D. 1874.

-Witnesses: W. D. SNOW.

W. P. BELL, GHAs. F. STANSBURY.

